DTV bill on hold

The bill before the House Energy and Commerce committee to require broadcasters to give back analog NTSC bandwidth at the end of 2006, regardless of DTV set penetration, has been put on hold until the next session of Congress.

Some members of Congress claim that the spectrum freed up by NTSC going dark will help the country’s safety forces communicate in emergencies. Many in Congress see digital delivery through broadcast and the Internet as a potential boon to the economy. A draft of the bill, written by Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La) and John Dingell (D-Mi), the ranking Democrat on the committee, will now wait until the next Congress has the time to sort through the issues raised by the NAB and others.

Look for last year's draft DTV bill to return to the attention of the House Commerce Committee. That's the message from the committee's counsel, Jessica Wallace, at the CEA's HDTV Summit in Washington, D.C. But the provision seen by broadcasters as the most onerous--a hard date for the mandatory return of the analog s

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) has introduced legislation to delay an upcoming FCC auction of the 700 MHz band of spectrum currently being used by television broadcasters. Tauzin's bill, H.R.4560, the Auction Reform Act of 2002, has 51 co-sponsors on the Energy and Commerce Committee